Our Disneyland Thanksgiving, Part 4

One more day at Disneyland Resort...time to hustle and check off all the things on our wish-list!

As you can see above, we rode the Teacups (and posed in the stationery teacup for a picture with cheesy grins galore). But what next?

How about the Matterhorn, which we'd been talking up since Day 1? Lorelai had asked about it over & over again, but when we finally got to the front of the line, she almost lost her nerve. Daddy had to almost force her into the toboggan. Only the fact that Celeste was also going on the ride finally made her toughen up. Still, I think she kept her eyes closed the whole way down (she was terrified of the "monster" in the ride, which we'd made the mistake of telling her about). Sweet Celeste, on the other hand, went on the ride with zero expectations, did okay, and lived to brag about it afterwards. Ah, the joys of being oblivious to fear.

 We also took a brief trip inside Sleeping Beauty's castle, so Aurora could see her namesake!

 From there, we headed further into the park to catch some of the classic rides, starting in New Orleans Square, which was all gussied up for the holidays. First, to atone for Wednesday's misfire, we all headed aboard the Pirates of the Caribbean ride...

...which, hum, I didn't get any pictures of, except this Jack Sparrow painting smiling sexily at me. Oh well, this ride needs no introduction: it's really incredible and tons of fun all the way through. I hadn't been on the ride since before the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise, and I was wary of the revamps Disneyland had done. But I needn't have worried; the changes were small ones that didn't detract from the animatronic goodness already on display. It was a little unnerving to see a life-sized Johnny Depp simalcrum moving & talking, but it was all in good fun.

I was even more excited to see The Haunted Mansion, which was given an EXTREME holiday makeover, a la The Nightmare Before Christmas, one of my favorite movies when I was a teen. There was a lot of wonderful detail...

It looked great inside & out! When all was said & done, though, I think I preferred the original Haunted Mansion to the tricked-out Jack Skellington version. There's something pitch-perfect about the goofy, slightly spooky tone of the original, and it didn't need any improvement. Plus, it doesn't feel like such obvious merchandise-whoring, since Nightmare is soo hot these days with the Johnny-born-lately fans, who buy all their clothes at Hot Topic and bizarrely fancy themselves ahead of the crowd on this one. Um, hello teenage girls, wearing those "Jack" T-shirts? Yeah...I was watching that movie on video before you were even born.

 Anyway, moving on...we visited Critter Country next, and while Daddy took the little girls on the Winnie the Pooh ride, Lorelai & I paid a visit to Splash Mountain...a first for both of us! It was a lot more elaborate & exciting than I was expecting; I got a little freaked out at that big drop towards the end! I had to be brave though, because Lorelai was freaking out the whole time, and was beginning to sob as we made the final ascent. She enjoyed the adrenaline rush, after the fact, though.

After these rides we ate lunch in Critter County...

...while watching the big boats go by along the Rivers of America. That afternoon, we decided to slow things down a bit, so we did some climbing around in Tarzan's Treehouse (formerly, per Nate, the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse):

It was scenic and fun, and gave us all a bit of a workout--even if we got turned around occasionally! The girls also enjoyed playing the "jungle" instruments at the end of the walk:

After that, it was time for some souvenir shopping! Nate got himself a new baseball cap (Pirates of the Caribbean-style), I got a new shirt and some Mickey-Mouse themed Christmas tree ornaments...

...and the girls each got a stuffed plushie--Lorelai got Crush the turtle from Finding Nemo, Celeste got Tinkerbell, and Aurora got Nemo himself! As you can see they are varying degrees of excited about their gifts (other toys were bought more secretly and saved as Christmas presents). Then it was back to the hotel, to eat dinner (pot roast in the Crock-Pot--YUM), to pack our things for our drive home tomorrow, and to prepare for the fireworks that night.
Some other attractions Nathan & I visited without the kids (at various times on this trip):

Space Mountain. The kids were all too young for this one, and apparently, I'm too much of a wimp for it. It's Nate's favorite ride (in fact, he rode it twice in 15 minutes!), but I only went once after waiting in line for a long time. It's very dark, fast, and disorienting, with very sharp turns & loud music. Ugh. Maybe I will go again, but only as a formality.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Now this was more like it. Yee-haw! It's a very rattly roller-coaster (and apparently, people have died on it), but despite all that, I had way more fun than I did on Space Mountain. Maybe it's because I can actually see where I'm going and feel fresh wind blowing through my hair. Maybe it's that hillbilly announcer at the beginning of the line who says, "It's the wiiiiiildest ride in the WILDERNESS!!!!" over & over. Who knows?

Indiana Jones & the Forbidden Eye Temple Thingy. I enjoyed this ride, but Nate didn't care for it much. Maybe he doesn't like the bumpiness (it does get pretty bumpy, but you're supposed to be in a rickety Jeep, so it's kind of the point), and maybe he's soured on Indy from that latest atrocious film that came out a couple of years ago and which we will speak of no more. But he also said it wasn't exciting, and I have to respectfully disagree--even that giant rock rolling overhead at the end got a screech out of me. Oh well, different strokes. Maybe I'm still an Indy fangirl.

It was our final night at Disneyland. How better to celebrate (as well as celebrate Thanksgiving, and the newly minted Christmas season) than fireworks? We headed back into the park one more time, dressed snug and warm:

We parked close to Small World, which was lit up beautifully for the holidays, and which went dark in time for the fireworks show...

Of course I don't have any fireworks pictures (not with my camera!!). However, it was beautiful and lots of fun. And then...a Christmas miracle! It started snowing!! Well, the snow machines hanging overhead turned on, anyway. Maybe if you were from SoCal (or even AZ, like our kids), it would have been beautiful and miraculous. But Nathan & I are still Colorado kids, and we found it a nice gesture, but still pretty cheesy & fake looking. There's just no substitute!

After all this excitement, our kids were about done in...

...as you can tell by Lorelai's facial expression. Farewell, Disneyland Resort! "See you next time!!", as Lorelai is fond of saying. Just a few more pictures left to share...next time.